Concert II - Spirituality and the Spirit of Youth
March 6, 2010 at 7:30 pm St. John's Norwood Parish
Program notes and composer and featured performer biographies for this concert below.
Concert III - Choral Tours De Force
April 24, 2010 at 7:30 pm, Terrace Theater
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Silver Anniversary Gala
Gwen Ifill, Honorary Chair
May 1, 2010, 6:30 - 9:30 pm, Organization of American States
Buffet dinner and live entertainment; live and silent auctions of fine goods
Tickets available from Concert Tickets page - mention tickets in Notes box
Program Notes for Concert II
A Mass Compilation
The Latin Mass of the Roman Catholic Church has been a palette of expression for composers, famous and anonymous, from the earliest days of Christian worship. Historians remain unsure of the origins of many of the texts, but by the medieval period the Mass was codified into a basic five-movement structure consisting of most of the texts still used today. Many composers have written concert masses not intended for use as part of an actual church service. Those writing music for use in the Church have been affected by factions of reformists from every angle throughout history, notably the Council of Trent, the Cecilian movement in the late 19th century, and the reforms associated with the Motu Proprio of Pope Pius X in 1903. This reform resulted in 1922 in the literal blacklisting of at least selected mass settings of Mozart, Haydn, Gounod, Schubert, and Rossini, to name a few, due to their perceived liturgical unfitness, though their musical value was never questioned. With masses constituting a large part of Cantate's repertoire, the choice of pieces for this compilation was difficult; but our international slate of composers shows how germane the Mass has been to the development of Western music, and how composers continue to find new inspiration in this old form.
Antonín Dvořák, Kyrie (1887). Dvořák starts his mass simply, in a manner reminiscent of his famous Largo ("Going home") used in the New World Symphony. The movement then builds as the counterpoint becomes thicker and more complex. Following historical precedent, Christe eleison is set apart by a softer, more reverent tone. Kyrie returns more quietly and incorporates music from the Christe. The final plagal or "amen" cadence provides a big conclusion to the arc structure of the movement.
Francis Poulenc, Gloria (1937). Poulenc's Mass in G Major, from which this movement is taken, is less widely performed than his concert-length setting of Gloria composed some 22 years later, but he begins the Gloria with the same rhythmic gesture used in his mass. Poulenc's questionable setting of Latin text can be forgiven in light of his beautiful, haunting, and utterly distinct choral writing, which often pits the lower voices against the higher voices. The joyful song of the angels at the birth of Jesus Christ melts into a more reverent and haunting "Lamb of God" (Agnus Dei), portending the crucifixion. Unusually jaunty staccato writing in the qui sedes text gives way to a quieter, homophonic reference to the Holy Trinity. The movement ends with a ringing major Amen.
Frank Martin, Credo (1922). In liturgical settings the Credo is often spoken rather than sung, mainly due to its length. This is a shame, as many composers are at their best in the word painting almost begged for by the vivid and contrasting texts in this movement, the unified statement of Christian belief. Swiss composer Frank Martin rises to the textual challenge adeptly in his unaccompanied double-choir setting. The Credo begins with unisons and open fifths, seeming to highlight the body of believers — diverse hearts, minds, and souls — coming together to express the fundamentals of their faith. Et incarnatus est is set low in the register, showing Christ's coming down to earth. Crucifixus, on the other hand, is a high, intense passage which gives way again to slow and low chords for passus, et sepultus es ("He died, and was buried"). The contrasting Et resurrexit concludes this movement with joy and exuberance, starting with a pentatonic gesture reminiscent of a bird song and building to a climactic Amen.
Zoltán Kodály, Sanctus and Benedictus (1942-44). Hungarian composer Zoltán Kodály is known for his method of progressive exercises for teaching music skills to children. His choral compositions are less known outside Hungary because many of them are written in Hungarian, a challenging language for non-native speakers. Kodály's Latin music retains some of the syncopated and dotted rhythms associated with the Hungarian language. The Missa Brevis is a setting for organ and chorus (later orchestrated for concert performance) featuring particularly ethereal soprano voices throughout. Kodály's style is made up of interesting and varied rhythms and modal melodies converging into modern harmonies. The Sanctus movement begins with sparse counterpoint and culminates with ecstatic homophony on the Hosannas, relaying the eternal song of the cherubim. The Benedictus plays with major and minor modes, and the movement ends by revisiting the music of the Hosanna.
Josef Gabriel Rheinberger, Agnus Dei (1878). Rheinberger, a Liechtensteiner who was a contemporary of Brahms, might seem like the odd man out in the company of more modern-thinking composers, but this beautiful setting will leave no doubt as to why his mass movement was chosen to conclude our compilation. A child prodigy, Rheinberger wrote his first mass settings at the age of seven and went on to become one of the most respected teachers of his time. Rheinberger's characteristic style shows his great respect for Brahms, employing chromaticism within the form and harmony of the late 19th century. One would never guess upon hearing the exquisite counterpoint for the two unaccompanied choirs in this movement that this mass was Rheinberger's rebellious answer to the pressures of the Cecilian movement to reform the artistic individualism out of Church music, rendering music subservient to liturgy. The seamless and gentle writing provides a quiet conclusion to our mass compilation.
Rachel Evangeline Barham
Two Slumber Songs from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream
The Two Slumber Songs from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night's Dream were written in 2003, during my first residency with Cantate as part of its educational partnership with the Thomas W. Pyle Middle School. The texts, drawn from Act 2 and from Act 5 at the conclusion of the play, are here formed into a one-movement work in two contrasting sections. The Mendelssohnian tone of the second section was not intentional but, during the compositional process, was not discouraged either.
— Maurice Saylor
The Sparrow Song
The Sparrow Song is based on an ancient Greek lyric (known as the Rhodian Swallow Song), which describes children visiting a house, asking its owner for food, drink, and sweets, and threatening dire consequences if these are not provided — including making off with the homeowner’s goat! This is, in effect, an ancient Greek precursor of our contemporary “trick-or-treat.”
A similar tradition takes place in modern Greece on and around New Year’s Day. Throughout Greece, children go from shop to shop in a village or town, serenading the proprietor with a New Year’s song while playing a triangle. The shopkeeper then gives the child a coin, and the child moves on to the next “victim.”
My piece honors, then, both an ancient and a modern Greek tradition. While setting the ancient text to music, I also quote the melody of the modern Greek New Year song, and use the triangle as well.
The Sparrow Song was written for and premiered by the Thomas W. Pyle Middle School Choir, Bethesda, Md., Dianne Hope, director, in 2005. It was commissioned by Cantate Chamber Singers while I was Cantate’s Composer-in-Residence.
Finally, most grateful thanks go to my wife, Dr. Sarah Ferrario, assistant professor in the Department of Greek and Latin at The Catholic University of America, who not only introduced me to this ancient song but provided a wonderfully buoyant English translation for musical setting.
Andrew Earle Simpson
Prélude et Fugue sur le nom d’Alain
Maurice Duruflé was a unique figure in 20th-century Paris. While his colleagues composed volumes of music, he was intensely self-critical and wrote few works. He regularly revisited and reworked his compositions, sometimes after they had been published. Even though his oeuvre was petite, each work is a gem. The Prélude et Fugue sur le nom d’Alain was published in 1942, three years after the beginning of World War II, and while the war raged on. The name in question is that of Jehan Alain, a young, brilliant composer and brother of the famous organist Marie-Claire Alain. He was killed in 1940, very early in the war, and it is to him that Duruflé dedicates the work, stating, “For Jehan Alain, who died for France.”
Throughout the 19th and into the 20th century, composers have written works based on the letters BACH. In the German notation system, “B” means B flat and “H” means B natural. Thus, the name of the great composer yields a musical motif: B flat, A, C, B natural. Duruflé expanded this system to include the letters I, L, and N. Starting again on the note A, Duruflé labeled this “I” (following “H”) and, as follows naturally, “J” = B flat, “K” = C, “L” = D, “M” = E, and “N” = F. Therefore the name “Alain” equals a motif: A-D-A-A-F. This motive permeates the prelude, but in a figuration that is so fast, it is difficult to hear. Near the end of the prelude, Duruflé again pays homage to Alain by quoting his most famous work, Litanies. For the subject of the fugue, Duruflé takes these first five notes and builds a beautiful theme. The second section, with the introduction of sixteenth notes, exhibits the counterpoint for which Duruflé was known: we hear the theme in inversion and augmentation in addition to its “normal” state. The fugue grows in intensity and volume up to the final, blazing chords.
— Eric Plutz
Agnus Dei
I wrote the first movement of this piece in 2000 for the Cantate Chamber Singers Young Composers’ Contest. The assignment was to write a piece on a theme by Bach, so I set the beginning of the Agnus Dei from the Roman Catholic mass ordinary (the invariant parts of the mass) to music based on Bach’s Prelude in B flat Minor from The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1.
The Agnus Dei is a prayer to the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, to have mercy on us and grant us peace. The basses’ opening Agnus Dei — a melodic figure with the rhythm da-da-dum, dum, dum, dum that is heard throughout the piece — comes directly from the Prelude, and other aspects of the harmony, counterpoint, and form are adapted from the Prelude. However, the sound of the piece is more haunting and agonized than the tense but stately Prelude. This difference reflects the increase in the sin and suffering that have continued to heap up within and around us since Bach’s time and our severe need for divine mercy.
When Cantate Chamber Singers invited me to revise the piece last fall, it was only natural for me to set the rest of the text to music based on the Fugue that follows the Prelude. Bach used a similar division of the Agnus Dei text for his Mass in B Minor. The subject heard first in the sopranos, Dona nobis pacem, with the piercing leap up at no-, is adapted from Bach, as are other aspects. The original Fugue is tortuous but glorious; it seems to convey the peace of Christ wrought through suffering. The present fugue is more passionate; it places more emphasis on our present need than on our future glory.
— Matthew Arndt
Elegiac Madrigals
Elegiac Madrigals is a setting of five fragments by 20th-century American poets. These have been merged into a continuous whole, comprising a miniature requiem of sorts. With the exception of the E.E. Cummings poem — the penultimate and climactic one in the sequence — the poems are all excerpts, in most cases drawn from substantially longer texts.
Elegiac Madrigals was the winning work in the Cantate Chamber Singers 2003 Young Composers’ Contest. Composed in 1999, the piece has been revised several times, most recently in 2010.
Judah E. Adashi
Psalmus 69
When I compose, I tend to write very organically, moving linearly through a piece, listening for what sounds right next. This means there is often not a lot of broad structure or much of an overarching plan. However, Psalmus 69 does have an obvious A-B-A form (or maybe A-A’-B-A), which is no accident. The setting is very intentional text painting, though unless you speak Latin — I certainly don’t — you might miss it.
In the piece’s A-B-A form, the first section A uses verses 1-3 of the psalm (or to break it down even more, A uses verse 1 and A’ uses verses 2 and 3), section B uses verse 4, and the return of A uses verse 5. Verses 1-3 and 5, all of the A sections, are full of anxiety, confusion, and a sense of urgency. The psalmist is desperately crying out to God. He repeatedly asks that his enemies be ashamed, confused, confounded, and turned back. In only four verses he says “make haste” three times, and he ends with “make no tarrying.”
In the music I tried to generate a similar sense of urgency and unease. The harmonies are at times very dissonant, the dynamic changes are dramatic and sudden, and the rhythms are irregular and jarring. Of course, the composition is in a minor key (or couple of keys). The first section A (or A’) ends with a full choir glissando up to a huge and dissonant chord that becomes almost a shout of “aha,” or in Latin, “euge.”
Section B is a sweet and peaceful respite from the gnawing anxiety of the rest of the song. Where verses 1-3 and 5 speak of the psalmist (“poor and needy”) and his enemies (those who “desire [his] hurt”), verse 4 speaks of those who seek God. The verse is filled with love and gladness, rejoicing and salvation. In the music I tried to reflect this emotional shift: the rhythms are no longer jarring; the music is slower and dynamically graceful, never getting above mezzo forte; and, of course, it’s in a major key. But section B is short-lived. The final section A is a fairly straight recap musically, with a big ending.
— Andrew Foreman
Biographies
Eric Plutz
Eric Plutz is University Organist at Princeton University. There his responsibilities include playing for weekly services at the University Chapel, official University services, and solo concerts, and accompanying the Chapel Choir in services and concerts. He also coordinates the weekly After Noon Concert Series at the Chapel. In addition, Mr. Plutz is rehearsal accompanist for the Westminster Symphonic Choir at Westminster Choir College of Rider University in Princeton, N.J.
Mr. Plutz, acclaimed as “an impressive organist” by Donald Metz writing for American Record Guide, has made two solo organ CD recordings on the Aeolian-Skinner/Mander organ at Princeton University Chapel. On the first, Musique Héroïque, he is joined by the Washington Symphonic Brass. Mr. Metz called their performance of the Poème Héroïque by Marcel Dupré “the best interpretation I’ve heard.” The second recording, Carnival, contains organ transcriptions of orchestral works, including Carnival of the Animals by Camille Saint-Saëns. Princeton University Professor Emeritus John V. Fleming joins Mr. Plutz on this recording, reading the texts by Ogden Nash. Both recordings are available through the Pro Organo Web site, www.zarex.com.
Tim Page, writing for The Washington Post, described Mr. Plutz as a “spirited and virtuosic organist.” As an organ concert soloist, Mr. Plutz has accepted engagements in distinguished locations across the United States and abroad, including Salzburg, Austria (Franziskanerkirche), Philadelphia (Verizon Hall at the Kimmel Center, the Wanamaker Organ at Macy’s, Center City), New York City (Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center, Church of St. Ignatius Loyola, Cathedral of St. John the Divine), Washington, D.C. (Washington National Cathedral), San Francisco (Grace Cathedral), West Point, NY (Cadet Chapel at the United States Military Academy), and Atlanta (St. Philip’s Cathedral). He was a featured artist at the 2007 Regional Convention for the American Guild of Organists in Baltimore, Md., and was a featured performer for the 2007 American Handel Society Conference.
From 1995 through 2004, Mr. Plutz was organist and director of music at Church of the Epiphany in Washington, D.C., where he oversaw the church's music program, including directing and accompanying the semi-professional choir and managing a popular weekly concert series. During that time, he was also organist at Temple Sinai in Washington and keyboard artist for Cantate Chamber Singers, and he taught organ at the Selma M. Levine School of Music. He has served as dean of the District of Columbia Chapter of the American Guild of Organists and for six years was keyboard artist for the Cathedral Choral Society and rehearsal accompanist for the Washington Bach Consort.
As an accompanist, Mr. Plutz has worked with many Washington, D.C., organizations, including the National Symphony Orchestra, the Choral Arts Society of Washington, the American Repertory Singers, the Fessenden Ensemble, the Washington Symphonic Brass, and the Washington Ballet. He has accompanied the Voices of Ascension under the direction of Dennis Keene and has worked with conductors Leonard Slatkin, J. Reilly Lewis, and Norman Scribner in various venues in the Washington area, including the National Gallery of Art, the Barns at Wolf Trap, and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
Originally from Rock Island, Ill., Mr. Plutz earned a Bachelor of Music degree, magna cum laude, from Westminster Choir College of Rider University in 1989 and a Master of Music degree from the Eastman School of Music in 1991. In 2004, while on sabbatical, he studied in Rochester, N.Y., with David Higgs, chair of Eastman's organ department, and in Paris, France, with Marie-Louise Langlais, researching the major organ works of César Franck.
Maurice Saylor
Maurice Saylor has been described in The Washington Post as "one of the more imaginative composers in town." His compositions span many genres, with a recent interest in unusual combinations of instruments. His music has been performed throughout the United States, Central America, Europe, and the Middle East, with broadcasts over commercial and public radio. Recent performances took place at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts; ClarinetFest 2009 in Porto, Portugal; and the University of Oklahoma, where his Romanza was the required competition piece for the Clarinet Symposium's Young Artists Competition. His most recent opera, Unfinished Sermons: a parable for church performance, was premiered in November 2009.
Mr. Saylor has received grants from the D.C. Commission on Arts and Humanities, the Maryland State Arts Council, and the American Composers Forum. Recently nominated for a Wammie award, he has also received three awards from the Delius Composition Competition, and songs from his set Laudis Corona took both first prizes in song (Art Song and Sacred Song) at the 2005 Diana Barnhart American Song Conference, where he returned as the featured composer in 2006. In 2005, Mr. Saylor, Andrew Earle Simpson, and Phil Carluzzo founded the Snark Ensemble (SnarkEnsemble.org) to present live performances of the composer/performers' new scores for vintage silent films. The ensemble has played live on the Kojo Nnamdi Show and was featured in Annapolis Capital. Several of the ensemble’s scores are soon to be aired on Turner Classic Movies. The ensemble’s music is featured on two four-DVD sets on All Day Entertainment: The Harry Langdon Collection: Lost and Found (2007) and Becoming Charley Chase (2009).
Mr. Saylor served as Composer-in-Residence for Cantate Chamber Singers twice (2002-2004 and 2006-2008), creating two major works. The Concerto in A for Cello and Vocal Orchestra (2008) premiered in June 2008 and received repeat performances by the New Hampshire Master Chorale later that year, and his magnum opus, The Hunting of the Snark: an Agony in Eight Fits (2004), was lauded in The Washington Post as “irresistible from start to finish — clever, deeply engaging, and performed with enthusiasm and evident delight by everyone involved.” A recording of The Hunting of the Snark and three Snark Ensemble silent film scores soon will be released on Naxos Records. Select scores and sound files of Mr. Saylor’s music may be accessed on the Internet at members.sibeliusmusic.com/MauriceSaylor
Andrew Earle Simpson
Andrew Earle Simpson, composer and pianist, is associate professor and chair of the Division of Theory and Composition at the Benjamin T. Rome School of Music of The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. He is a composer of opera, silent film, orchestral, chamber, choral, and vocal music. His most recent projects reflect an interest in theatrical music and humanistic subjects. He has received awards and grants from such organizations as the American Music Center, the American Composers Forum, the Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University, the Loeb Classical Library Foundation, the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation, and the Maryland State Arts Council.
Simpson received the degree of doctor of music in composition from Indiana University in 1995, the degree of master of music in composition from Boston University in 1992, and the degree of bachelor of music in theory and composition from Butler University in 1990. His teachers have included Lukas Foss, Claude Baker, Eugene O'Brien, Frederick Fox, and Michael Schelle. Simpson also created and currently directs the Master of Music in Composition, Stage Music Emphasis program, which opened at Catholic University in August 2005. This innovative graduate program, unique in its scope, teaches composers to write for the stage by combining practical training in collaborative theatrical composition with academic course work.
Simpson's chamber and orchestral music has been performed across the United States and abroad in such venues as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. He also is an active composer and performer of new scores for silent film. He is the House Film Accompanist for the Library of Congress' Mount Pony Theater in Culpeper, Va., and performs frequently at the National Gallery of Art. Simpson also has performed his silent film music at the Giornate del Cinema Muto in Pordenone, Italy; the Sala Cecelia Meireles in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; the Kennedy Center; the New York Public Library; the AFI Silver Theatre; the National Museum of Women in the Arts; Slapsticon; and other venues.He is also co-founder of the Snark Ensemble, an instrumental group devoted to creating and performing new scores for silent film. Several of his new film scores, for chamber ensemble, jazz trio, and piano solo, appear on the DVD box set Becoming Charley Chase, released by All Day Entertainment in July 2009.
Simpson has been Composer-in-Residence for Red Cedar Chamber Music (Cedar Rapids, Iowa) and recently completed a term as Composer-in-Residence with Cantate Chamber Singers, for which he has been Keyboard Artist since 2005. Capstone Records released his CD of chamber music, A Fiery and Still Night, in August 2006, and Red Cedar Chamber Music released a disc devoted entirely to Simpson's music, Fireflies: Chamber Music by Andrew Earle Simpson, in April 2009 on the Fleur de Son Classics label.
Matthew Arndt
Matthew Arndt teaches music theory as a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Iowa. He holds a Ph.D. in Music Theory from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, an M.M. in Composition from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and a B.A. in Composition with honors from Lewis & Clark College. He has composed works for various ensembles and genres, especially choral and vocal music.
Judah E. Adashi
Said to be "embarked on a promising career" (The Washington Post), composer Judah E. Adashi has been honored with awards and commissions from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the ASCAP and BMI Foundations, and the Aspen Music Festival, as well as three residencies from the Yaddo artist colony.
Mr. Adashi is on the composition and music theory faculty at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md. He is also the founder and director of Baltimore’s Evolution Contemporary Music Series, noted for having “added a welcome dose of newness to the local concert scene” (The Baltimore Sun).
Mr. Adashi’s principal composition teachers have been Nicholas Maw and John Harbison. He holds degrees from Yale University and the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University.
For more information, please visit www.judahadashi.com
Andrew Foreman
Born and raised in Belfast, Maine, a small coastal town with an unusually creative and artistic population, Andy grew up surrounded by friends who were musicians. He began taking piano lessons as a child, mostly out of a sense of competition with one of his friends, but the interest in music stuck. His first choral experience was as a member of the Maine Boys Choir, where he sang alto — he’s a bass now — and he took up the pipe organ in high school.
Andy attended Brown University as an undergraduate, concentrating in music. There he founded the Original Music Group, a student composition forum with peer critique and regular concerts. He was also music director of the Brown Madrigal Singers and, later, student conductor of the Brown University Chorus.
After graduating from Brown in 2001, he moved to New York and worked in the office of Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. His job there eventually grew to include creating all of the group’s graphic design. Later, he worked as a paralegal at Cahill Gordon & Reindel, a large corporate law firm, and from there he decided to go to law school. During this time, he continued to sub on the organ at various churches and to write music, though a bit sporadically.
In 2008, Andy graduated from the University of Chicago Law School, where he was managing editor of the Legal Forum. During law school, he spent a summer as a judicial intern for Judge Sonia Sotomayor, then of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. After law school, he was an associate in the Chicago office of Latham & Watkins, and he now works at Daley Mohan Groble, a small Chicago firm. He continues to write music — “though too infrequently,” he says — and as a hobby he builds Web sites — including his own: www.andyforeman.com.